[Dixielandjazz] Sacramento Music Festival

[jjcrhhi at aol.com]

Again regarding Jim O'Briant's comments about our festival...sorry about misspelling Jim's name last time...I don't expect everyone to agree with us, to like our choices or to attend our festival.  However, I would ask people who are being publicly critical of our festival to be more careful with their "facts".  Mr. O'Briant referred to "One Day Only" scheduling for "many bands" and said that we did that in Sacramento and shorted our patrons' choices by doing so.  The readers should know that not a single band fit that description at the 2010 festival.  Here are the facts about our trad and swing bands and the number of days they appeared at our festival:
 
Guest Artists
Bob Draga - 4 days
Jim Fryer - 3 days
Bob Schulz - 4 days
Bria Skonberg - 3 days
 
Trad Bands
Banu Gibson with Jon-Erik Kelso, Dan Block, David Boeddinghaus, Kerry Lewis and Kevin Dorn - 3 days
Black Dogs with Tom Hook, Davy Jones, Jim Buchmann, Pat Gullotta, Bob Leary, Dave Gannett and Ed Metz, Jr. - 3 days
101st Army Dixieland Band - 4 days
Blue Street Jazz Band - 4 days
Catsnjammer Jazz Band - 4 days
Cornet Chop Suey - 3 days
Dr. Bach & the Jazz Practitioners - 3 days
Dutch's Gramercy Six - 3 days
Fulton Street Jazz Band - 4 days
High Sierra Jazz Band - 3 days
Kristy Reed's Valley Finest - 4 days
Natural Gas Jazz Band - 2 days
St. Louis Rivermen - 4 days
The Professors - 2 days
Wally's Warehouse Waif's - 4 days
The New Lowdown - 3 days
 
Swing, Jump, Ragtime, Boogie-Woogie, Novelty  Bands
Carl "Sonny" Leyland - 4 days
Hal Smith's International Sextet with Kim Cusack, Carl "Sonny" Leyland, Anita Thomas, Katie Cavera and Clint Baker - 4 days
Neville Dickie & Danny Coots - 4 days
The Tin Men with Matt Perrine - 3 days
Vince Bartels' Swing Quintet with Pete Christlieb, John Allred, Johnny Varro and Jennifer Leitham - 4 days
Bill Dendle & Eddie Erickson - 3 days
Miss Margie & the Hot Five - 2 days
Red Skunk Jipzee Swing Band - 3 days
Royal Society Jazz Orchestra - 2 days
Big Mama Sue - 2 days
Shelly Burns & Avalon Swing - 4 days
Sister Swing - 4 days
Steve Lucky & the Rhumba Bums - 3 days
Stompy Jones - 2 days

Compared to other festivals, with all these great trad and swing bands, by the way, all the other music we present is essentially free for the trad & swing fan who buys a ticket to the Sacramento Music Festival.  I don't write in very often, but I am discouraged when people who are part of our jazz community write things that are incorrect and serve to discourage people from attending our festival.   The economics are simple...the more people who attend our festival, the more musicians we can employ.  We will continue to present plenty of trad and swing music at our festival for many years to come, as long as the community continues to support our festival.
Jim Roberson